TYPE: IMPLEMENTATION
Challenge
The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) is comprised of three separate entities: a state funded university, a hospital, and practice plan. MUSC wanted to bring all three entities under one umbrella utilizing Workday®.
This was a complex project for several reasons. MUSC has 32,000 employees spread across their three entities. It was important to them that every opportunity was taken to harmonize where it was possible, but also to maintain and respect the individuality of each entity. As an example, they desired to synchronize their hiring process where it made sense, but the university, as a state-run institution, had certain hiring requirements that the health system was not subjected to.
Workday® was center stage in this monumental undertaking, with eight other concurrent projects running together with Workday®’s implementation. MUSC regarded this as a transformational opportunity for their organization, a chance to implement and streamline HCM (Human Capital Management), financials, and supply chain management, along with other modules within those areas—HCM included payroll, comp, and benefits; financials included expenses and procurement; and supply chain management included inventory, purchase requisitions, and purchase orders. On the university side, grant management was a major point of importance.
MUSC had never taken on a project of this size spanning all of their entities. They needed someone with considerable experience to deliver a successful outcome. They also acknowledged the value and importance of bringing in an external resource that would be able to lead all entities without bias and, when necessary, have difficult conversations without repercussions.
The end goal was to implement a system that would serve MUSC for generations to come.
Solution
Andrea Chudy, IJA’s Founder and Managing Director, was brought in as the Executive Program Director. MUSC chose her, and her IJA team, because of her deep experience in managing these types of projects. Furthermore, she has a background in higher ed, which gives her the unique ability to navigate the politics associated in that world.
IJA ran the program as an individual business unit within MUSC, with its own budget, its own program culture, and its own team—Chudy managed 280 people in a rolled up capacity on the project.
By organizing the project in this way, the IJA team was able to see the landscape from a comprehensive view, adding additional resources in a proactive way to mitigate any problems related to scheduling, resource constraints, and lack of expertise or skill sets, at MUSC. And because the IJA team all came from one firm aligned to the same value propositions as to how they work, they were able to act as a far more cohesive unit than individual contractors.
This was a risk-heavy program, with an extremely aggressive 15-month timeline. A three month extension would have cost MUSC between $6–$10 million dollars. Ultimately, IJA was successful in every sense of the word, delivering the project on time and on budget.
This was the first medical university to go live with Workday®, so a successful outcome was important for all parties involved. MUSC is more than pleased with the results. In fact, there are still multiple IJA employees embedded there as part of their production support team, helping them continue to lean into Workday® and deliver against their new goals.